Grated potato and onion collect in a sieve set over a bowl, and the cloudy liquid drains away beneath them. Pour most of it off and you'll find a thin layer of white starch at the bottom. That starch goes back into the potatoes with an egg and a little flour, and spoonfuls of the batter go into warm oil until the edges turn golden. These are deruny (деруни), Ukrainian pancakes made mainly from raw potato, with a crisp outside and a tender inside.
Deruny in Ukraine
Deruny is the usual English spelling of the Ukrainian деруни. Grated-potato pancakes are made in many countries, and Ukraine has more than one form of its own: in some regions, deruny are stuffed with meat or mushrooms. The ones here are plain, with no filling.
The dish is popular enough to have its own celebration. Zhytomyr Oblast holds an annual deruny festival, where a giant deruny was once made, weighing 396.75 lb (180 kg). For more dishes from the same country, see our Ukraine page.
Ingredients
These amounts make 16 pancakes, depending on how heaping your spoonfuls are. A tablespoon is 1 tbsp (15 ml) and a teaspoon 1 tsp (5 ml).
Equipment
- Box grater with a fine, star-shaped grating side
- Sieve (strainer) that sits over a bowl
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring spoons
- Large nonstick skillet
- Spatula and a tablespoon
- Clean food thermometer for checking the center
Choosing Ingredients for Deruny
Potatoes. Use Yukon Gold potatoes. Other gold- or yellow-fleshed potatoes work if you can't find them, though the texture won't be quite the same.
Onion. The onion is grated together with the potatoes, and its juice helps keep the raw potato from browning while you work. Leaving it out, or using a different kind, changes the recipe.
Oil. Use grapeseed oil throughout, or sunflower oil. Later batches may need a little more.
Baking soda and flour. Keep the baking soda; baking powder is not a substitute. Both the baking soda and the flour are part of the recipe.
Sour cream. Ordinary supermarket sour cream is fine. Plain yogurt can stand in, but it has a different tang and thickness.
The batter contains egg and wheat flour. The sour cream served alongside contains milk. If you are cooking for someone with allergies, watch for cross-contact from shared frying oil, pans and utensils.
Method: Grate, Keep the Starch, Brown Both Sides
Grate and mix just before cooking. Do not taste the raw batter, which contains raw egg and flour. To check the salt, fry one small test pancake until it is cooked all the way through and taste that.
Deruny Doneness and Common Problems
Break one pancake open and look for a thin golden crust around a soft interior, with no wet, raw-looking batter. Looks alone won't tell you it's safe, though. Use a clean food thermometer to confirm that the center reaches 167°F (75°C) and stays there for at least 1 minute, as in step 5.
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Batter seems watery | Too much of the potato liquid was mixed back in | Pour off most of the liquid as in step 2, keeping only the settled starch |
| Pancakes don't hold together well | The settled starch was poured away with the liquid | Pour slowly and stop when you reach the white starch layer |
| Outside browns before the inside is cooked | Heat too high, or pancakes too thick | Return to medium heat, keep to about a heaping tablespoon each, and check the center |
| Hard to flip, pancakes run together | Pan too crowded | Cook fewer at a time, with space between them |
| Pan looks dry for later batches | Oil used up by earlier batches | Add a little more oil and let it warm before adding batter |
| Grated potato has started to discolor | Raw potato left sitting | Grate the potato and onion together as in step 1 and cook without long delays |
Grating matters too: how finely you grate affects how long the pancakes take to cook.
Serving and Storing Deruny
Serving
Deruny are eaten warm with sour cream or mushroom sauce. They work as breakfast, as an appetizer or as a side dish.
A Family Version
One family makes deruny with 5–6 medium potatoes, 1 medium onion, 1 large egg or 2 small, 3 heaping tbsp flour, 1 tsp salt, and pepper. Dried onion soup mix is an option; if you use it, leave out the salt. They serve the pancakes with dry-curd cottage cheese mixed with sour cream and dill, and they also ate deruny during the fast before Easter.
Storing Leftovers
Cooked pancakes shouldn't sit at room temperature for long. Divide leftovers into small portions in clean, shallow containers, cool them quickly, and refrigerate them promptly. Reheat until the center reaches 167°F (75°C) or higher.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I soak or rinse the grated potatoes in water?
No. You pour off most of the potato liquid, keep the starch that settles at the bottom, and mix it back in. There is no rinsing step.
How do I check the seasoning if I can't taste the batter?
Fry one small test pancake until it is fully cooked through, then taste it. The raw batter contains raw egg and flour, so leave it untasted.
